Thousand Words

It is so easy, and we are all so quick to put information out there on the internet for who knows who to see and maybe use. stories like Thousand Words can be real eye openers about the damage that an online world can have with just one simple error in judgment. Especially to someone as young as Ashleigh who is in an age where people are starting to feel invincible. Mistakes happen, friends often can and do, betray each other, and boyfriends and girlfriends may or may not last. Things on the internet are permanent. Once words or pictures, go out there, there is no deleting them, EVER. This book gives us a realistic, well-handled story of something so very undoable, so scandalous, that hopefully it will send an important message to show more anyone who may not realize how easily a situation like this can come about. There is a past and present POV that allows us to learn Ashleigh’s story. We first meet her when she’s starting the community service she was sentenced to. Yes...our Ashleigh is no angel. She’s slowly making a new friend and trying to make the best of her tattered her life. Some of the chapters go back to before anything ever happened, allowing us to learn what lead up to her taking the risk that she will regret for the rest of her life. It also makes it easy for the reader to put themselves in her shoes. We see and feel her regret and humiliation. While some people, adult and teens, would have become an emotional wreck in her shoes, you have to admire how strong Ashleigh stayed through it all, and if anything, she became even stronger. The author explores a different side... the side where the character does not get overrun with emotional and mental anguish. Instead, Ashleigh takes back her life and that, to me, is the second most important message of the story. Even when things are at its worse, how you react and take charge of your mistakes are what most times will make a difference in the end. The story has just the right amount of heart, friendship, family, and emotion; it grabs you, but it remains a quick and easy read. show less

4.5 stars

At the urging of her friends (and after feeling ignored by her boyfriend for most of the summer before he leaves for college), a slightly drunk Ashleigh takes a naked picture of herself and texts it to Kaleb. It works (temporarily) to get his attention, but after Kaleb leaves for college, they eventually break up. And Kaleb passes on Ashleigh’s picture and it makes the rounds. Ashleigh is charged (as is Kaleb) with distributing child pornography after it has blown up and Ashleigh is doing 60 hours of community service where she has to research and write a pamphlet on sexting.

The community service bit we know from the very start of the book, and it goes back and forth in time to explain how Ashleigh got there. Wow, a (yes, show more huge) mistake made by a teenager and this book shows how badly it can blow up and affect that teenager, as well as her friends and family. And, of course, as we know from news stories (there was a big one in Canada maybe a decade or so ago), some kids, after the constant bullying, kill themselves, so there can be awful consequences. In the author’s note at the end of the book, she does mention that there are states where teenagers can be charged with distributing child pornography in a situation like this (and Kaleb in this book – as an adult at 18-years old – faces a lifetime “sexual offender” label). There can be (and sometimes are) enormous consequences. show less

I hate reading about something bad happening to a character I like. So, as I began to like Ashleigh Maynard, I read with trepidation, knowing that Thousand Words is about a nude photo of Ashleigh texted to her boyfriend going viral. However, Jennifer Brown ThousandWords(author of The Hate List) handles the situation well.

We hear so many warnings on the news about what you should and shouldn’t put on your social media pages. We hear about potential employers checking Facebook and its equivalents to see what’s out there on potential employees. We don’t hear quite as much about the impact on teens and their families and friends when a simple mistake, such as texting or putting on social media, compromising photos, be they nude photos show more or otherwise, goes viral which in this instantaneous, cell phone age will happen.

Jennifer Brown does an outrageous job in the form of high school junior, Ashleigh Maynard, who drunk at a summer party, texts a frontally nude photo of herself to her college bound boyfriend, Kaleb, who has spent more time with the ‘guys’ over the summer than with Ashleigh. The reasons for the photo going viral are important, but less so, than the impact on the characters. What we and our children don’t realize is that both Ashleigh, 16, and Kaleb, 18, can be charged with distributing child pornography. The criminal ramifications based on the different ages are dramatically different.

Brown describes in realistic detail the emotional impact on Ashleigh, her friends to some extent and her parents, exacerbated by the fact that her father is superintendent of schools in their district. The characters are marvelous. The story rings true. The writing just adds to the realism of Ashleigh’s tale.

In the hands of a less talented writer, this story could be mundane or sordid. However, we all know Jennifer Brown has talent and she does teens a great service by informing them of the consequences of one ‘little’ mistake. Parents and teens alike MUST read this book.

I”m not a fan of sequels, but the story of Kaleb should be told as well. Jennifer, what about a ‘companion’ piece? show less

When Ashleigh thinks about her boyfriend Kaleb going off to college, she's filled with anxiety. What if he forgets all about her? So one drunken night she decides to send him a picture that's sure to keep her in his mind... a picture of herself: naked.

But Kaleb has always been a little inattentive and distracted and when he goes to college it only gets worse, leading to a bad breakup. When Kaleb forwards the text to some friends as a way of revenge, it completely spirals out of control. Soon everyone has seen the picture, even Ashleigh's dad, the superintendent of her school.

The photo becomes a huge scandal in Ashleigh's town and everyone is trying to distance themselves from it, and from her. Ashleigh feels completely humiliated and show more alone and now has to attend court-ordered community service. She doesn't know what to think about being betrayed so badly and doesn't know why everyone is blaming her. It's not like she wanted the whole world to see her naked. She's so busy apologizing and hiding from the nasty comments that she loses sight of who she even really is.


I am a big Jennifer Brown fan... so this book was on my radar from day one. Now that I've read the book, I'm happy to say it lived up to my Jennifer Brown expectations!! It's definitely an "issues book" but it's not one that's been done to death. Sexting is a really big issue that some people don't realize the full consequences of. Once something is digital it can live forever. Things you post or videos/pictures you've taken can go viral or surface years later and cause humiliation, hurt feelings, and even lost jobs.

This book dives right into the issue of the unintended consequences that sexting can have. I kept thinking that the consequences for Ashleigh seemed a little too severe, but then I remember that it has happened. I've heard numerous cases of girls who have made national news for their pics getting out.

The best part of this book was when Ashleigh was going through the fallout and realized that she was all alone. The feeling that was in this part of the book hurt my heart. Like her parents really weren't being supportive, her friends dropped her, and the guy she trusted for the last year had ruined her life. Everyone was just coming down on her so hard and they wouldn't let up. The school, her coach, her peers, their parents, her parents: everyone was out to blame her for something she never wanted to happen. Yes she took the picture, but it was for her boyfriend! He's the douche here... not her. And yes he had consequences too, but at least he deserved them. I just felt and felt and felt for this girl.

One thing that bugged me was the maturity level. The conversations between Kaleb and Ashleigh were kind of hard to read at times because they were so immature. Having said that though, I sort of loved that it was like that because it made it feel real. At that age I totally had fights with my boyfriend that made me look dumb. I can remember fighting with an ex-boyfriend and bringing up old fights in the middle of new fights all the time. It's like the #1 immature thing that you can do in a relationship. But it is the reality of teen relationships. And I love that Jennifer Brown captures the teen voice so authentically.

I really enjoyed reading about this topic because it reminds me how much easier I had it growing up in the 90's. We had to call someones landline and actually ask their parents if they were home and could talk. It made it a lot more difficult to communicate with boys. But I think it was a good thing. Texting and Facebooking makes it so easy to have the balls to put yourself out there. Without those things we really got to know people before communicating with them. I think that is a lot safer... and better on your heart. So yeah, i found it super interesting to see this girl get bullied via text and Internet knowing that half of those people wouldn't be saying anything if they had to do it face to face.

The only thing I really wanted was more! It definitely could've been 50 pages longer.

Overall: I LOVE Jennifer Brown! You should definitely pick up this issues book about a really relevant topic. It's a book about friendship and finding yourself through really hard times. It's deep, but it's kind of fun at the same time.

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I did not want to read this book. It made me uncomfortable, and I'm pretty sure I put it down at least half a dozen times just to walk around the room from nerves. Finally, I just pushed through and read it in one day. I feel like it is a believable portrait of sexting and the issues surrounding it. Mistakes are made by both teens and adults on both sides of this issue, and unfortunately in this digital age, some things never go away.

In this day and age, EVERYONE is plugged in. From me, to my mom, to even my grandmother. Everything in the world is done on computers and everyone I know has some type of a cell phone. And this story proves that that is not always a good thing.
In this story, we meet Ashleigh, a girl who is sitting in community service due to a situation that spiraled out of her control. She took a picture of herself in the nude and sent it to her then boyfriend. After a nasty break up, he sent it to one person and naturally, the entire school sent it out, seen it, or told someone else about it. Although she feels that no one understands her and that no one will ever speak to her again, she meets one person who turns her world upside down.
With this show more being my first Brown novel, I was excited to begin it. I had heard so many great things about it, but none of the comments I got could actually compare to the greatness that is this book. I loved absolutely everything about this book. What I loved most was the emotional roller-coaster of this book. Brown took me way past the normal feels of happy and sad, and took me to bigger things like scared, in love, and upset.
Another thing I really loved about this was how relevant it was. This story couldn't have come at a better time. With so much of the world being "plugged in," this is happening way more than it should. Brown completes the difficult task of showing what happens to everyone involved in the sending of the text.
This story reminded me of a Lifetime movie I watched once, but with a much better result. Ashleigh was able to meet the one person who ignored the text. Not because they didn't get it, but because it was the right thing to do. He reminds Ashleigh that even though things are so bad, other people out in the world sometimes have it worse than you do. And also that no matter where you go and what happens to you, everywhere you go, you will always find a friend.
In this story Brown has written a brilliant realistic fiction novel that should be used as required reading in schools. To show the children all about "sexting" and the pain it causes everyone in a non-teachy way. show less

"when I think about who I am, all I can think about is that picture."

I thought this was a great cautionary tale about a girl who made one horrible choice in this age of technology and how that one choice rippled to affect her whole life of her, her friends, and her family.

I think the best part of this story is the hope that it leaves you with. I was a little disappointed that the blurb talks about a point that isn't until almost the end of the book.